Prudential buys the insurance unit of Thailand's Thanachart Bank

Prudential buys Thanachart Life Assurance for $585 million and establishes a bancassurance business partnership with Thanachart Bank in Thailand.

British insurer Prudential will pay $585 million to buy the insurance unit of Thailand’s Thanachart Bank, in the latest twist and turn in the competition among global insurers to capture the growing Asian market.

On October 10, Asian insurer AIA Group said it planned to buy ING’s Malaysian life-insurance operations for $1.7 billion in cash. Then on October 19, ING agreed to sell its insurance units in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand to Hong...